A socio-cultural group, Fulani Community Nationwide, has urged the President-elect, Bola Tinubu to consult widely with its members at the grassroots to avert the recurring clashes between herders and farmers in the country.
Chairman of the Group, Alhaji Ya’u Haruna- Malammadori, said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Katsina on Monday.
Haruna-Malammadori said that the Fulani community was happy over the victory of Sen. Bola Tinubu at the polls in the Presidential and National Assembly.
“We wish to use this medium to congratulate Ahmed Bola Tinubu and reaffirm our support that we are solidly behind him.”
“During Tinubu’s campaign, we gave him our words, we pledged to support him and we supported him. Thank God. We are happy he won with a landslide victory.”
“Our great concern now is, the President–elect should consult with us at the grassroots on issues that affect us, not people at the top who don’t even know our problems.
“We are tired because many people have a negative impression of us by branding us as troublemakers.
“If we are consulted, we will be able to advise the President exactly on what we want for us to have mutual trust and understanding towards avoiding the recurring skirmishes between us and farmers in the country.
“This is not a hidden fact, we need farmers and farmers also need us. We are all contributing to the growth of the economy in the country,” the group said.
The community appealed to President-elect to establish a ministry of livestock as obtained in other countries of the world like the Niger Republic, alongside the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to the group, the ministry should be saddled with the responsibilities of handling all issues concerning livestock rearing or breeding, to bring development and peace among herders and farmers.
The organization appealed to the president-elect to appoint some former governors as ambassadors of the country outside the country.
The group alleged that most of the ex-former governors constituted problems in their states as they were dictators trying to intrude and control the new governors.
“We are therefore appealing to the president-elect to give responsibilities to some of these governors and post them outside the country.”
